Cincinnati Water Maze
Cincinnati water maze (CWM): This is a labyrinthine maze with 9 T-shaped cul-de-sacs branching from a central (but circuitous) channel leading from the start to the goal. It is tested in completed darkness using an infrared light emitter and camera in order to eliminate distal cues. Animals cannot solve the maze by spatial navigation in the absence of distal cues, hence, the test a presumptive test of path integration ability, sometimes called 'sense of direction' or "dead reckoning." This navigational ability is conserved across species ranging from insects to human. It requires the animal to use internal movement cues to formulate a vector or distance x time sense of direction to locate their position and find the escape. The test depends on an intact entorhinal cortex where grid cells integrate information from the hippocampus and the presubiculum (where head direction cells are located). We record latency to find the escape, number of errors, and return to the start (which reflects the animal's effort to reestablish their 'sense of direction' if they fail to find the escape).
